January 25, 2015

It can be done

Sven Sachsalber, an Italian artist who lives in New York City, is known for playful conceptual art, like sitting in a tree and sawing it apart while still in it, or filming himself eating poisonous mushrooms in the woods. His latest, a jumbo version of a previous exhibit, is a classic: find a needle in a haystack.

Taking place at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the president of the museum hid a single silver needle in an enormous stack of hay, one far taller than the artist himself. Sachsalber gave himself 24 hours to find the needle by hand, during which the entire event would be broadcasted on French TV. His method is pretty simple: take a handful of hay, not too large a handful, fold it a couple times and bend it, and, theoretically, if the non-pliable needle was in that handful, he’d feel it. Here’s the performance in action.

Amazingly, Sachsalber managed to find the needle, and with a few hours to spare, reports MSNBC. After about 18 hours, in the early evening of Friday, he emerged from his position next to the haystack, whooping, as he brandished the needle.